MCLC: protest finds unlikely father figure

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Anne Henochowicz <annemh at alumni.upenn.edu>
Subject: protest finds unlikely father figure
***********************************************************

Source: Wall Street Journal (11/11/11):
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142405297020435800457703070155531
7344-lMyQjAxMTAxMDEwNDExNDQyWj.html

Protest Finds Unlikely Father Figure
By JESSICA FIRGER 

A former Chinese democracy activist who helped lead the Tiananmen Square
protests is putting his work on hold at a software firm he founded in New
York to devote all his time to the Occupy Wall Street protests.

More than two decades ago, Shen Tong was 20 years old, organizing the
media campaign of a student democracy movement in Beijing. Mr. Shen
recalls dodging bullets on June 4, 1989, when protesters in the capital
city's Tiananmen Square were met with force by the Chinese military.
Untold numbers of dissidents were killed.

Now, Mr. Shen, 43 years old and a successful businessman, can be found in
the Financial District's Zuccotti Park, where he has become a sort of
father figure for Occupy Wall Street.

Nearly every day, he holds planning meetings with the protesters in an
unremarkable Broadway office. His responsibilities range widely<from
mundane tasks like hunting down paperwork for the unwieldy group to
lending advice to younger, self-styled revolutionaries.

"It's a lot of wise old man comments," said protester Max Bean, 29.

Mr. Shen didn't plan to devote all his time to Occupy Wall Street. On Oct.
17, he simply ventured 10 blocks from his home to Zuccotti Park and was
intrigued to meet some protesters who knew of his efforts in China. "I was
curious about the movement," he said. "Pretty soon, I realized it was not
going away. But no good deed goes unpunished."

Mr. Shen soon found himself working a full day for Occupy Wall Street,
seven days a week.

He said he turned over day-to-day control of VFinity, the software company
he founded in 2004, to other managers to focus on the movement.

With his worn-out jeans, an untucked shirt, suede sneakers and tousled
hair, Mr. Shen looks more like a Brooklyn hipster than a successful
businessman.

But his business background makes him an unlikely leader for an
anticorporate movement. And Occupy Wall Street is a far cry from Mr.
Shen's work in China, where the government sought to suppress the student
movement, sometimes with violence. New York's protesters camp in the open
air and march freely through Manhattan.

"Last time we wanted a different China, we got shot at," said Mr. Shen.
"America can still afford to do this nicely."

Awarded American citizenship 10 years ago, Mr. Shen said he voted for
President Barack Obama but is disenchanted with the establishment. He said
he is "dedicated but not yet committed" to Occupy Wall Street. But he said
criticism that the protesters have no demands misses the mark. "Their
demand is quite simple," he said. "They want fundamental change."